The Morning After
by WarpedReflection
Summary: Jeremy had a strange dream about a fifteen year old girl, who fought past dangers untold and hardships unnumbered. But he barely remembers. This is the tale of Jeremy the morning after. Darkish. No longer an oneshot.
1. The Morning After

**Summary: **Jeremy had a strange dream about a fifteen year old girl, who fought past dangers untold and hardships unnumbered. But he barely remembers. This is the tale of Jeremy the morning after. Darkish. I have decided to expand. Was previously a oneshot.

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><p><strong>The Morning After<strong>

As Jeremy Stephens woke that Sunday morning he felt as if he had lost something vitally important overnight. Something precious.  
>He could not explain that strange sense of loss and even if he could – it probably would not make a great deal of sense. The man never had been an early bird and, thankfully, his girlfriend through eight years was well aware of this and never tried to engage him in a conversation before the actor had had his first cup of coffee.<br>As he yawned and stretched, he tried to remember his dream. All he knew was that it had been very vivid and vibrant and that he had looked different. Except that, he barely remembered anything except that someone he knew had played an important part in the dream. Who? Linda? Fredrick, their lazy, black tomcat? Or perhaps, John, the manager, who had been a lot on Jeremy's back lately? Figures, if his first dream in ages had been plagued by a poorly dressed workaholic with sadistic tendencies.

Jeremy snorted. He reached for the wristwatch on the nightstand. It was 12 o'clock in the afternoon. Jeremy rubbed his eyes. Thirteen hours of sleep – no wonder he felt strange. The last time he had slept for that many hours, must have been when he was a young out-of-work actor sleeping on friends' couches while trying to find fame and fortune in the big city.

Jeremy rose, with wobbly legs, and staggered over to the mirror in Linda's dressing table. He groaned at his reflection – it looked all _wrong. _His blond hair seemed dull and short, his cheekbones did not seem regal enough, his regular blue eyes seemed _mundane_ and his award winning smile did not look… feral enough.

Had he been a long haired, feral king in his dream?

And why did he feel a compulsion for reaching out after Linda's lip gloss and applying it?

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><p>Linda entered the bedroom carrying a cup of coffee and found Jeremy pinching his cheekbones in a gentle, disbelieving manner. She raised an eyebrow, but knew better than to ask. She handed him the cup and Jeremy looked at her with a heartbreakingly fond expression in his eyes. "Thank you," he breathed and looked at her again. This time his look was one of confusion. As if he thought she was someone else. He shook his head and hastily took a sip of the coffee.<p>

Linda put her arms around him from behind and studied their reflection in the mirror.  
>They were a dashing couple, she knew that, and she often boasted of Jeremy's good looks to her friends. She felt lucky that she had found Jeremy – if it weren't for him, she never would have had such a successful career. She had willingly left home and family behind to follow him to England, to ensure it.<p>

They were a dashing couple.

She turned her head towards her partner, and felt at peace with the world. All was well.

All was well. Until the light began to flicker and Jeremy froze in her arms.

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><p>Jeremy's reflection changed as the light flickered. Every two seconds his handsome, content looking face changed into something different. Something sinister. Something positively feral.<p>

His face was all sharp angles, his nose was slightly crooked, his lips curling into a crooked smile. The reflection laughed darkly, which showed off his pointed teeth. It was a wild animal in a humanoid shape.

Then Jeremy looked at Linda's reflection.

Linda put a comforting hand on his arm. "Jeremy, are you okay?"

He felt like he was having a seizure. There were so many different feelings trying to occupy his head at once.

In the mirror the person holding him was shorter and younger than Linda. Her hair was the color of chocolate, pin straight, and went down to her chest. Her eyes were sad and green and innocent. He knew the real Linda was looking at him with intense worry, but _she_ looked up at him, or rather up at Jeremy's reflection, with a mixture of fascination, fear and repressed desire written plainly on her face. It was **Sarah**.

Linda's fifteen year old daughter.

He felt angry. He felt deeply, deeply hurt. He felt betrayed. He felt desire for the green eyed vixen in the mirror. He felt rejected and defeated all over again. He felt fascinated with her innocent eyes. He felt something, he might have characterized as being in love if he didn't know it was _wrong_.

As the lights went, his reflection in the mirror was constant.

Above all, he felt terribly, terribly angry. Angry at the woman beside him for not being the girl in the mirror.

"No." Jareth said in a dark voice, and turned to face the woman beside him, who stepped away from him. "I am not alright." He approached her and circled her like a vulture.

Linda looked on in horror as Jeremy's beautiful face had turned into a horrid caricature. The cheekbones looked sharp as knife edges. She could have sworn she noticed glitter on his cheeks.

The left eye's pupil dilated as she hit him with a heavy brush. She ran.

He prowled and hunted her down. Eventually cornering her, like a hungry lion would an injured zebra.  
>He flashed his pointed teeth at her in a horrid, morbid grin that spoke of death and pain. "But I believe I shall be soon."<p>

Jeremy Stephens lost something precious overnight. Jareth was going to get her back.

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><p><strong>(AN): Sooo... ehm... yeah.****  
><strong>

**So... come over to the dark side, we have Jareths.**

**In my brain this makes sense. I hope you can see the sense somewhere in there too.**

**(A/N)2: I have decided to continue this, because some of you asked me very nicely :)**


	2. The Land of Never Never

**(A/N): Because some of you asked me very kindly to continue this, I was swayed. Heh. I hope you're not disappointed about the result. :)**

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><p><strong>The Morning After<br>**_(The Land of Never Never)_

The first thing Jeremy noticed when he woke up was the blood on his hands.

He lay on his back, drenched in sweat, wearing the clothes he remembered having slept in. His hands were bloody and he felt panic seize him – was it his own blood?

It was not.

But that left another question: whose was it, then? And where was Linda?

As Jeremy rose from his position on the floor he found himself trembling. He was all alone in an unknown place. And he might have… hurt somebody.

His head was spinning and so was the room around him. Jeremy leant on a nearby wall and tried to focus on the room surrounding him. It looked like his and Linda's' bedroom, but something felt decidedly off. Jeremy felt like cold fingers were running down his spine - everything seemed completely wrong! - and tried to suppress a shiver. Something bad was going to happen. He just knew it.

He followed the wall and slowly inched his way across the room, to the familiar bookcase. As he absentmindedly ran his fingers across the titles in search for a minimal amount of comfort from normality, he noticed an aberration. And screamed.

All his childhood keepsakes – books like _Alice's Adventure in Wonderland_ and _Peter Pan _– as well as Linda's folktales, the crime novels he had taken a liking to reading recently and even Linda's _The Black Dahlia _biography – _everything was printed backwards._

He clutched his mouth and closed his eyes in horror and murmured to himself, "I'm dreaming, I'm just dreaming, everything is okay, everything is going to be okay…" But he failed to convince himself. When he dared to open his eyes again, he realized that the entire room was _mirrored_.

A sense of dread washed over him and he wobbled on shaky legs to the mirror in Linda's dressing table. _Please don't be true, please let my idea be false…_

Yes, when Jeremy looked into the mirror he saw his bedroom – his _real _bedroom – and he saw his reflection – the _imposter _– standing on the other side. A kingly and manly man even though he wore makeup. A feral animal even though he was clearly human. He seemed otherworldly, strong and terrifying.

Jeremy could not bear to look his reflection in the eye, so he scanned the background.

_Where was Linda_?

He noticed a blood trail on the floor. Cold hands gripped his heart and tugged. _Linda?_ What had the reflection done to her?

As he looked closer he noticed a dainty pair of white feet through the door leading into the living room. They were lying in a pool of blood. He felt bile rising in his throat. _This can't be happening_.

The reflection tapped on the glass to get Jeremy's attention. A smirk was plastered on is face as it raised Linda's severed head, making it visible for the first time. It pressed her face against the mirror. Jeremy threw up.

When the reflection tapped again, Jeremy barely dared to look. It mouthed "Buh!" and Jeremy realized that he couldn't hear what was going on and what was being said on the other side. Apparently it had thrown away the head, because it raised its hands, palms facing the mirror.

The reflection had bloody hands too.

The reflection smirked again and winked at Jeremy. It had the _bloody_ audacity to wink at him!

Jeremy could merely watch in horror as the reflection wrote upon the mirror with its bloodied fingers.

_!ti tuoba tespu lla teg ot deen on ,noitatimi elap a ylerem saw ehS_

To say that Jeremy blacked out would have been an understatement.

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><p><strong>Disclaimer:<strong>  
><strong>Labyrinth and its characters ©Henson, Froud, Lucas<strong>  
><strong>Jeremy © A.C.H. Smith in the Labyrinth-novel<strong>  
><strong>Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass © Lewis Carroll<strong>  
><strong>Peter Pan and Never Land © J.M. Barrie<strong>  
><strong>The Black Dahlia = Elizabeth Short<strong>


	3. Flights of Fancy

**The Morning After  
><strong>(Flights of Fancy)

A gloating owl – if an owl can be described as being such – soared across the midday sky. A wide expanse of sea was beneath it.

Jareth had longed for and craved this day for far too long. He was free at last and he felt his repressed powers doubling by the minute. In a couple of hours that human reflection of his would be trapped forever as he duly deserved. Turnabout is fair play…

The owl visibly faltered as the damned word entered its mind, making it steer slightly out of its course, but it quickly corrected the blunder with a trained flick from a white wing.

"_That's not fair!"_ A, by now, very familiar voice wailed inside the owl's head.

He remembered feeling hurt. Her childishness and cruel childish stupidity had cut him to the heart. It was at this moment Jareth knew she had to mature before she would let him woo her and he decided to help nature along. Jareth had always been an impatient fellow – and honestly, he reasoned, so would anybody that had been in his position be.

_"You say that so often." _Jareth had released his captive from the cage of his arms and walked away, suddenly feeling very cold, being robbed of the warmth from young body. The sweet scent of begonias had lingered on his clothes and he briefly closed his eyes to memorize her scent, before continuing. "_I wonder what your basis for comparison is."_

If Jareth been in his regular form instead of his owl one, he would have punished himself for reliving this memory. Plus, since when had the Goblin King been interested in playing fair? Playing fair had never won him any games. If that wayward reflection of his had kept his nose to himself and had not interfered with Sarah's run, then she would surely have lost and succumbed to Jareth. He could have kept the girl _and _the babe…

If he had been in complete control of his powers, he could have stopped the meddling wretch, but apparently the entrapment had made him soft. The humanoid version of Jareth would have scoffed at the thought. The owl version of Jareth merely hooted disdainfully, much to the confusion of the passing birds.

Jareth had business to settle with a certain American teenager, who had plagued his thoughts and dreams.

Now without the interference of the pest in the mirror.

Jareth was a king. And kings never settled for less.

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><p><strong>(AN): this is very short. The shortest chapter I've ever written in fact, but more is coming. Jareth just needed to be heard first :)  
>Don't worry - I know where I'm going with this.<strong>

**School has been crazy busy lately, but hopefully I'll update again soon.**


	4. In Retrospect

**The Morning After  
><strong>_(In Retrospect)_

They were content before they met Linda Williams.

Previously they existed in mutual ignorance of each other – Jareth in one world, Jeremy in another.

They were confined from entering the other's world, as they were contained existing in a dormant fashion within the other's mind…

Any semblance of peace, which may or may not have lasted all of Jeremy's life if left undisturbed, was effectively and irrevocably shattered upon his meeting with the attractive actress.

It was when Jeremy had just had his first minor breakthrough as an actor that his manager, John, immediately shipped the actor to the states. "America is your chance, Stephens!" he had said. "If you want to be famous and successful you have to cross the pond. Everyone does it nowadays."

And Jeremy – having no immediate family and few friends – grasped the opportunity, determined to excel in America.

But when he met Linda at his first American stage production, he discovered that fame was not as important as he had thought. Linda was very beautiful and very talented. They played each other's love interests and during playacting Jeremy fell in love for real.

Jeremy had had many lovers before, but he saw something in Linda that made him think of settling down. But there were two things hindering him from doing so.

The first thing was Linda's family, although Linda seemed to use the theater as a means to get away from them. Jeremy had many talks with Linda about her husband and young daughter; the husband was an emotionally detached doormat, according to Linda's stories, and her daughter was an overly clinging brat.

A morning when Linda had stormed into the theater, fuming and furious, Jeremy had approached her and asked what the matter plaguing her was. It turned out to be a vicious row she had had with her husband, because she did not have time to attend to some school function or other. The husband had accused her for not taking any active interest in their daughter's life. Linda had cried out on Jeremy's shoulder.

The second thing hindering him from pursuing Linda was a part of his psyche. Something within his mind tried to dissuade him from leading her away from her family.  
>He later identified the voice in his head as being Jareth.<p>

But Jeremy could not be swayed; he was attracted to his co-star and he wanted to be with her.

The first time Jeremy met Linda's husband – Robert, his name was – was at the opening night of their play. Robert seemed aloof and unwilling as his wife dragged him around backstage to meet her colleagues. As Jeremy and Robert shook hands it became obvious that Robert felt intimidated by Jeremy, who were taller, handsomer and altogether more charming.

As the curtain went down, the room was filled with the excited applause of the many spectators.

Jeremy had squeezed Linda's dainty hand in his as they bowed to the crowd.

The play was a success. The party afterwards was grand and noisy. Scouts, searching for the talents the cast members possessed, were littered all over the room. It was a very important night for both Linda's and Jeremy's career – they were hired at once to star in a big Broadway musical together. "One can practically see the sparks flying between you onstage," a well-wisher had said.

Robert left early because he received a call from the babysitter. Their daughter was very ill. Linda, much to Robert's dismay, decided to stay awhile longer and bask in her newfound glory.

That night Jeremy told her how he felt about her. That night they shared their first kiss. Jeremy saw the conflict in Linda's eyes quickly give way to affection and abandon. She had feelings for Jeremy, which she no longer had for Robert, and Jeremy could give her more happiness than her family could. She gave in and they began a passionate affair.

A couple of months later Linda had decided to leave Robert for good, and begged Jeremy to accompany her as emotional support when she told her husband.

That was when the first time he met Sarah

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><p><strong><strong>(AN): Sorry - RL was in the way of updating sooner :(  
>I've tried to write a longer chapter, FelineNinjaGrace, but as you see - it didn't really work :P<br>****

****To Be Continued...****


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